Ann Gallo (she-her)
Founder/Artistic Director
Producer
Women of Tyringham, July/Aug. 2021
Tyringham Arts Festival, July 28, 2018
Our Town by Thornton Wilder. A site-specific, community-based production with the residents of Tyringham, MA, 2017
Director
UBU Theater
Women of Tyringham
A Fly in My Soup
Happiest Years
Boys and Girls Club of the Berkshires
The Hundred Dresses
A Fly In My Soup and Other Works
A Spy, A General and June Peas
Pittsfield Schools' summer Gateways ESL program
Cultural Heritage Spoken Word
Maloh, a Congolese Tale
Emerson College Graduate Directing Project
Doubt: A Parable
Mission
To give communities a voice through the arts.
Vision
To identify and engage with communities who lack equitable access to the arts. In partnership with each community we will develop unique, custom arts and theater-based projects or curriculum to articulate a community’s voice.
Community
Women of Tyringham: Experiences of the Fifty-one Percent, an original site-specific, oral history theater project/July 2021, a community-based production. The Tyringham Arts Festival/July, 2018 with the residents of Tyringham, MA. In August, 2017, Ann produced a community-based, site-specific production of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" with the residents of Tyringham, MA. Ann is the Board Chair of IS183 Art School of the Berkshires.
Teaching Artist
UBU Theater acting/scene study in Tyringham, MA. 2018 collaborated with the Barrington Stage Company's WSS Youth Council exploring themes from "West Side Story". In 2015 Ann initiated the first theater program at the Boys and Girls Club of the Berkshires in Pittsfield, MA for middle and high school youth. She has also taught theater with the Pittsfield Public Schools' high school EOS/Educational Options for Success program and the Pittsfield Schools' Summer Gateways ESL program.
Mentoring/Youth Empowerment
She is a Youth Mentor at Pittsfield Community Connection in Pittsfield. In 2015/16 Ann was a mentor with Multicultural Bridge’s Happiness Toolbox' program in Pittsfield, MA. Ann served as the Youth Advisor for the city of Pittsfield’s Youth Commission from 2014 to 2016.
Education
Ann holds an M.A. in Theatre Education from Emerson College ‘13, and a B.A. in Theatre and Music Composition from Bennington College ‘82. She has attended professional development workshops across the U.S. and abroad at theaters and arts organizations including Cornerstone Theater, National Life Stories at the British Library and the Oral History Society/University of London, Shakespeare & Company, Arena Stage, AATE National Conferences and the Mass Cultural Council, among others.
Why Community?
To provide artistic experiences that empower and engage communities. Theater and the other arts can be inaccessible for a variety of reasons: economics, distance, accessibility, unfamiliarity or simply a lack of exposure to the arts…through no ones fault but our oppressive “systems”. By providing access to community-based artistic experiences, and addressing accessibility barriers UBU aims to enrich the cultural life of area residents of all ages, ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels. The arts can be an instrument through which to celebrate a community’s character and articulate its individual voice.